A surname derived from the office or title of lay-abbot of a monastery. In the early Middle Ages the abbot of a monastery usually belonged to a leading family of the district, and in that family the office was hereditary. "In course of time this system gave rise to great abuses; the monastery grew rich in lands, and the energies of the abbot, or some other hading officer, were directed to temporal rather than spiritual management. In fact, latterly, he became a mere layman, holding the abbacy in his family by direct descent, and, delegating his clerical duties to a monk, he himself took to rearing a family in which the monastic lands were hereditary" (Macbain, Scoto-Celtic studies, p. 69). That these 'abbots' were considered as merely laymen is shown, e.g., in the charter by Turpin, bishop of Brechin, referred to below, in which the prior, Bricius, at the time really a clerk, has precedence over Douenaldus (Donald) Abbe. This Douenaldus Abbe de Brechin witnessed a charter by Turpin, bishop of Brechin, c. 1178—1180 (RAA., I, p. 134), and sometime between 1204 and 1211 he gifted the 'Dauach qui vocatur Balegillegrand' to the Abbey of Arbroath, which grant was confirmed by William the Lion (ibid., p. 49, 50). Maurice Abbe of Abireloth or Abereloth appears as witness in charters by Gilchrist, earl of Angus and of John de Mountfort between 1201 and 1214 (ibid., p. 29—32, 47). The family of this Maurice must have taken its origin from the lay abbots of a Celtic monastic foundation near by, "probably established by St. Drostan, with whose name the primitive Christianity of the district is associated" (PSAS., lxv, p. 118). Between 1211 and 1214 Johannes Abbe with the advice and consent of his son Morgund granted to the monks of Abirebroth (Arbroath) permission to take charcoal from 'nemore jaeo de Edale,' now Edzell (ibid., p. 48). Among die witnesses are 'Morgundo filio meo, Malcolmo fratre, Johanne filio meo.' The same John Abbe and Morgund his son were present at the perambulation of the boundaries of the lands of the Abbey of Arbroath and the barony of Kynblathmond in 1219 (ibid., p. 163). Nicholas Abbe appears as juror on an Inquest in 1250 (ibid., p. 190), Simon del Abbeye, Scottish merchant, complained in 1370 of being plundered by English wreckers (Bain, IV, 164), and Arthur Abbay, shipmaster of Carrail in 1613, was probably the father of John Abay, skipper of Carrail in 1635 (Wedd., p. 237; RPC., 2. ser. vi, p. 572).

(Scottish) Variants of Abbott, q.v.